While my attention has been fixed on a 30K Blue Volume One being sold by country on eBay over the past few months, Somerset Stamp Auctions has slipped into their Sale 285 (5 December 2015) a 97% complete Stanley Gibbons Ideal Album covering the British Empire. Estimate is a healthy £38000. Unfortunately, there are no pictures.
I'm a tad skeptical of their count of missing issues, though. Surely, British Guiana isn't complete unless this is a more adbridged edition of the Ideal album that I haven't seen.
I've written about the Ideal Albums in the past, most recently with the hope that Gibbons will reprint both the British Empire and rest of the world volumes in looseleaf format.
Here is the lot description:
Red Ideal album for British Empire to 1936
containing a comprehensive mint and used collection formed over the past
50 years containing over 11,000 stamps with less than 300 spaces
remaining. Condition a little mixed in places but much fine. Needs
careful viewing as some mis-identification in places especially of
watermarks. The following larger scale countries are completely filled
except for any negative numbers in brackets. Antigua, Ascension Is.,
Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Basutoland, Bechuanaland (-4), Bermuda,
British East Africa (-2), British Guiana, British Honduras (-1), British
Solomon Is., Brunei (-1), Canada (-7 earlies), Cape of Good Hope,
Cayman Is., Ceylon (-3), Cook Is., Cyprus, Dominica, Egypt (-1),
Falkland Is. (lacks only the 1928 2½d on 2d), F.M.S (-2), Gambia,
Gibraltar (-1). Gold Coast (-1), Great Britain, Grenada (-1), Hong Kong
(-5), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Leeward Is.,
Malta, Mauritius (-7 earlies), Montserrat, Morocco Agencies, Nauru,
Negri Sembilan, Newfoundland (-4), New Guinea (-1), New Hebrides, New
South Wales, New Zealand, Niger Coast, Nigeria, Niue, North Borneo (-6),
Northern Nigeria, Nyasaland (-4 earlies), Palestine, Papua, Perak (-2),
Queensland (-1), Rhodesia (-2), St. Kitts, St. Helena (-2), St. Lucia,
St. Vincent, Sarawak, Seychelles, South Africa, South Australia,
Southern Rhodesia, South West Africa, Straits (-3), Sudan, Tanganyika,
Tasmania (-2), Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Is., Virgin
Is., Western Australia (1-) and Zululand (-1). Many other smaller
country ranges near complete and an extensive range of Indian States. An
extremely comprehensive collection overall and estimate allows for
fiscal use, poor condition and mis-indentifications.
The famous stamp collector Josiah Lilly said that there were 100,000 postage stamps he wanted for his collection and he succeeded in acquiring 77,000. My considerably easier target is 35,000 of the more common stamps from 1840-1940 contained in the Scott Blue International Album Volume 1. This blog will record my progress, provide general information about Classic era philately and hopefully encourage other "Blue" collectors.
4 comments:
Bob,
Ever heard of Scott's Ne Plus Ultra International albums? This large WW collection sold at action for $40,000. By the way, these are the same albums that FDR used although he used blank quadrille pages.
-Chris
Worldwide extensive and voluminous collection offered intact from an estate, many tens of thousands of mint and used singles, sets and souvenir sheets housed in eighteen Scott Ne Plus Ultra International albums and 21 Scott Specialty albums, all filling seven large cartons, the Ne Plus Ultra albums cover the period from 1840 to 1934 and the Scott Specialties cover the period from 1935 to 1974, with nothing present thereafter, by the way, if you want to collect the world to 1934 the Ne Plus Ultra albums are great, since they have spaces for nearly everything, are springback so extra pages can be easily be added, and can be rearranged alphabetically (they are currently arranged in four chronological sections like the Scott brown Internationals), while the Specialty albums are arranged by area, such as British Commonwealth, Latin America, French Colonies, Eastern Europe, etc., while we noted no rarities there are a great many singles and sets in the $25.00 to $500.00 catalog value range to be found throughout, with all the world well represented, including United States, and the Specialty albums very well filled, just to mention a few highlights we found U.S. #595 mint pair, Antigua mint #21-30, Canada mint #66-73, 74-84 and 96-103, Canal Zone mint #70-81, Finland unused #3 (toned), Macao mint #46-57 and 73-103 and Russia mint #559-68 to name just a few, also includes several stockbooks and small boxes of duplicates, some stamps were removed from the collection years ago, however it is intact as received, the overall quality is quite a bit nicer than typically found, with very little faulty material noted, mostly o.g. or used, generally fine-very fine; a robust collection for which sufficient time should be allowed for a thorough viewing.
Chris, thanks for bringing this 2010 auction to my attention. Just wish there were pictures. I have seen descriptions of the Scott Ne Plus Ultra albums, but have never actually come across one. The Ne Plus Ultra refers to the binders and was intended to house blank pages (as you indicate in your post). Scott at some point decided to publish the Internationals printed on heavy paper, one side of the page. But instead of the two post system with punched holes we use today, the Ne Plus Ultra version held the pages in place with springback binders.
This collection apparently sold for £55,000.
Thanks for remembering to check this, InforaPenny. I forgot. Really wish there had been pictures.
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